Strachan demands highest standards to spring Milan upset

Celtic's manager, Gordon Strachan, believes that the Scottish champions retain a realistic chance of progressing to the quarter-finals at the San Siro this evening despite being held to a scoreless draw at Parkhead a fortnight ago. He insisted that victory is within their grasp should they play to the best of their abilities.

"It won't be a night to carry passengers," said a bullish Strachan yesterday. "If someone sets a standard of seven out of 10 and that's our lowest mark, then the rest will be up there. If one drops to four or five, then automatically it drags the others down. Milan are a better team than us, I think we all agree on that. They have better players. We have been lucky this season to play some world famous teams; Manchester United, Benfica, Milan - it has been fantastic. But of course there now comes a point where we want to win."

Strachan has a fondness for statistics, and needs no reminding that his side have never achieved an away victory in this competition. Yet perhaps the manager will seek solace from the fact that the one time Celtic have avoided defeat on their Champions League travels was in the similarly salubrious surroundings of Barcelona's Camp Nou.

Celtic opted not to train at the San Siro yesterday, Strachan claiming a number of his players "could do with the rest", before adding: "There are arguments where you can test the ball, test the lines, the grass. We have done that at other grounds and lost 3-0."

The manager must decide whether to play Thomas Gravesen in a five-man midfield or deploy Kenny Miller in support of Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink - the only certain starter alongside the captain, Neil Lennon - in attack. Milan have gone three successive European matches without scoring. The attacking threat of Carlo Ancelotti's men, who sit sixth in Serie A, has been severely blunted by the sale of Andriy Shevchenko to Chelsea; their current strikers, Ricardo Oliviera, Filippo Inzaghi and Alberto Gilardino, have scored only 17 goals between them in this campaign.

It remains to be seen how many Celtic fans will be present to see the match. Just under 5,000 have official tickets and despite club exhortations to remain in Glasgow another 5,000 are expected in Milan tonight. Reports have suggested many have been able to purchase tickets directly from the host club. Whether the police eject Scottish fans sitting in areas not designated for them remains to be seen, but there appears little prospect of trouble between Milan and Celtic followers, who have mixed openly in the past.